Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/559

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��»b»iidoned; for llie inierobes, whiali putrefMtlon, survive the exposure.

Home of the experiments on which this conclusion K9ifl are brlefl; deBCribed. Meat in tin*, exposed to —63' C. for Bis hours, underwent (after thawing) putrefaction wllb generntion of sues. Trials with fresh urine showed Chat freexing at very iow temper- Mures delafed the appearance of [he alkaline fermen- tation, but a temperature of — 113° C. for eight houra did not sterilize the urine. Snuiples of fresh milk exposed to temperatures of from lero to — 80° P. for •Iglit hours, curdled, and showed the well-known Bacterium lactia; and, so far as could be observed, freezing did not delaj the process after the fiasks weru kept at n temperature of about 50° F. Similar results were obtained with ale, meat-juice, vegetable tnf usioDS, etc.

It is probable that ihe micro-organisms were frozen solid. One cannot suppose that in these circum- stances any of the phenomena of life take place: Uie mechanism is simply arrested, and vital changes resume their course, when llii' condition of a suitable temperature Is restored. These considerations led the authors to examine whether any of the vital phenomena of higher animals might be retained at such low temperatures. They ascertained that a live frog may lie frozen through quite solid in about half an hour at a temperature of — 20° F. to — 30°. On thawing slowly, In two instances the animal com- pletely recovered. After longer exposure the aui- tnalK did not recover. In two cases frogs were kept in an atmosphere of - 100° F. for twenty minutes, and aithough they did not revive, yet, after thawing out, their muscles slill responded feebly to electrical Rtiuinlalion. One experiment was performed on a wann-blooded animal, —a rabbit. The cold-blooded frog became a^ hard as a stone in from ten to twenty minutes, but the rabbit produced in itself so much beat as enabled it to remain soft and comparatively warm duritig an hour's exposure to — 100° F. Hlili its production of heat was unequal to make good the loss; and every Instant it was losing ground, until, at the piid of the hour, Its bodily temperature had fallen about 5fl° F. below Ihe normal, but was still 143° F. ■hove the surrounding temperature. When taken out. the animal was comatose, and reflex action was aboli'-hed. I'laced in a warm room, its temperature rose rapidly, and the rabbit completely recovered.

The observations are of great value, and highly suggestive. Those upon the rabbit indicate that death from cold is preceded by loss of consciousness, owing to the early suppres5ion of the activity of the gray matter of the encephalon. This conSnns the belief that death by freezing is comparatively pain- less. The viability of microbes at low temperatures has also been demonstrated by Piclet and Tung,'

'ho found that various bacilli can survive — 70° C. for a hundred and nine hours. After such exposure, Bacillus authracls retained Its virulence when in- jected Imo a living animal.

inot refrain from asking. Are not frozen mlcro-ur^anisms the means of disseminating life

��the agents of through the universe V An affirmative answer Is at least a better hypothesis than the assumption of spontaneous generation to account for the origin of life on the earth. May not life be coeval with energy? May it not have always existed?

Chableb S. Mi mot.

��PRBUISTORIC AMERICAN SCULP- TURES.

���Guatemala, which were first deacribed by Dr. Habel in No. 2GB of Smitiiaonian contributions to knowl- edge, 1879. These were piinclpally fallen monoliths which were discovered in 1862, near the village of Santa Lucia CosumallTupa, aenr the base rif the Volcano del Fiiego. Several of these carving<> vera afterwards secured by Dr. Bastian for the Itertw.. The majority Q\•^»M«^•)S,vt'^^^a^^■' ■^■»'

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